Interview with Alan Musabeyezu, College of Wooster

Interviewer: Today is going to be great because we get to highlight a school that doesn’t always necessarily come to mind for me. Until I met you, I hadn’t heard of the school before. But today we have Alan joining us from College of Wooster in Ohio.

On your LinkedIn, you listed some experience with Goldman Sachs, your investment club, the African Student Union at Wooster, and then you’re studying econ and stats and you’re focused on data sciences. We would all love to learn about those experiences and we can start with a quick background from you and just how you ended up at the College of Worcester.

Alan: Oh, definitely. My name is Alan, thank you for inviting me for this interview. Originally, I’m from Rwanda. I grew up studying in Rwanda, came to the U. S. three years ago to the college. I think the way I got to know about the college, I went to a U. S. embassy fair back home and different schools could reach out to you. I always wanted to come to the U.S. and I guess I was learning on the go. I was learning the differences between a liberal arts college, a regular college, and like a more business institution, etc. And I was fortunate enough to get some emails from Wooster, then I applied. And it was when I got in, I really liked the school. I think they had great small class sizes and the aid was also very good. Especially as an international student, they were very accommodating to international students. So I made the journey, made the trip. It’s been a great experience ever since.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s a long journey.

Is that U. S. embassy fair, is it kind of like a career fair for colleges or is it different?

Alan: I’ll say so. Yeah, I think it’s a career fair for college. There were some different colleges that were there. And then there was a college email list you could apply to. Some of the schools, it was interesting, some of the schools I remember, I think there were some Ivy League schools at the college fair and I just tried to connect with anyone who would take a meeting with me that day.  And then I think that’s how Wooster got my email at ISU.

Interviewer: Yeah. That sounds overwhelming.

Was that your first introduction to exploring college options or did you look beforehand?

Alan: I had a, it was a long process, I had applied the year before and tried to get schools in the U. S. It wasn’t too easy, but it was during the COVID year. So aid was also an issue, trying to find a school that would match enough aid to be able to come to the U.S. But I got wait listed by some schools and I think that’s what gave me momentum to want to try out another year because I said, oh, maybe I’m this close, at least let’s try it out. And especially because of the different opportunities in the U. S. in terms of these finance, technology, et cetera, different industries, there’s so much going on in the U.S. I felt like a U.S. college education would help me access just to learn more about the U.S., from a career standpoint.

Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. It was; you mentioned visiting the school.

Was that like one trip that you did? Because that’s a lot of travel or did you kind of apply and then just decide you’re going there?

Alan: Oh, for me, I just applied, decided I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do, what was going to happen. I wasn’t too well versed in the difference between the states or what Ohio would look like.

Interviewer: Haha right, just one big state, like the entire country, just college in the U.S.A. was the goal, which is perfectly understandable. Like you were saying, there are tons of opportunity, which is cool. And so again, you said you’re a senior, I don’t know if you said that during the conversation with the recording on, but senior year, so now you’re four years in, which is great timing for me because we got to know each other a bit previously and now I get to tap into your experience as a senior being there for four years.

What else was new in that transition? So you get to campus and not only is it high school to college, but you’ve been waiting to just get to the U. S. Was it a huge transition for you?

Alan: I’ll say so. It was quite the transition learning the way things worked. I think the way everything worked was a bit different in terms of it, even as something as small as like the way you name a street. I think one funny story I could reference was I went to the wrong bank branch when I was coming here. I went to the opposite side of town and I had walked because that’s where we had walked to. It was the opposite side because I really didn’t understand the streets. I was so used to a different way of doing things. The weather as well. Ohio is known for its bipolar weather, it’s very; one day it can snow, the next day it’s sun. I was so confused. I don’t even know how to try to build that habit of checking the temperature app. That was something I’d never done before. Yeah. You need, you need a long experience with it.

Interviewer: But you almost need like three outfits for the day. Don’t feel bad about going to the wrong branch. Where was I traveling? I think it was for Duke for recruiting students or something. It’s like the Raleigh-Durham thing down in the Carolinas. They’re close enough together, but it’s still like 45 minutes depending on where you are going. I went to the wrong hotel to check in because there was a version of the hotel in Raleigh and Durham. I went to the wrong hotel. It was the wrong one. And it was actually 40 minutes away from the right one. And I got there at like 10pm. So I had to get back in the car after a full day of travel for like 45 minutes at 10 o’clock at night. I was exhausted! And it was like the worst miscommunication on my part. And so yeah, I went into the lobby and they’re like, ‘You do not have a reservation here.’ So I was freaking out. So that’s really funny.

But yeah, in terms of, in terms of kind of getting settled on campus, so you show up and it’s just like, everything’s different. Getting on a bus is different. The names of streets are different. What was like your favorite thing getting to campus for the first time?

Alan: Oh, interesting. Okay, it was a very, I like the campus, like, at least when I first came, I mean, even now to this day, it’s very beautiful, with a lot of trees and nature. I could say, I never knew this about myself, I guess, through experiencing it, I got to realize I like nature a lot. It made it nice. And, but most important, I’d say the, the community of people that were there. It’s a very small campus, so you get to know a lot of the people, so it felt like because of that, they always tried to have a lot of activities, international student orientation, standard student orientation. So meeting all the people from different places, and especially those first few days when you’re getting to know a lot of people, and just hearing a lot of stories, I was like, wow, this is about to be a very interesting time.

Interviewer: And there were so many things that you probably hadn’t even heard of yet. And but it sounds like the College of Wooster does a great job getting you specifically connected with faculty and staff and just different roles. Different resources.

What were some of the different offices that you worked through when you got to college?

Alan: Sure. One is the Apex, the this is the career learning office, they were very helpful. When I first came to college, I remember that one thing I really wanted was to make sure I could get like an internship or something in the first year, because when I came I wasn’t just focused on the educational aspect of things, but there’s also the fact that I always wanted to work somewhere in business. Or something. I wasn’t really sure what I was even doing. That’s another part. But I knew I wanted to work somewhere and learn how things operate. I would go to the office, I had had no experience building resumes or anything like that. When I think about from a mentorship standpoint, there was also the entrepreneurship department, we have a director of the department is very friendly, I remember I met him the first day I got to campus. I was roaming through the library. Just like exploring. I think he could tell I was confused. So he said hi. And I said hi, too. And then we struck up a conversation. I think to this day, he’s the one that’s been writing a lot of my any recommendation letters or trying to make things happen. He’s the person I go to and the professors as well. I think the school structures you have a class the first year, the first year seminar and you have like a professor who’s there and they usually they become your first year advisor. Before you transition to your major. And I’ll see having some faculty dedicated towards helping you, especially as a new international student when you’re navigating because there’s a lot you may not know about. How is the US? What are the different work permits? How do you stay in the summer? What’s going on? They’re very helpful in terms of navigating those early days.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. So it’s a good thing to look confused sometimes as long as you run into someone who’s nice. I think that’s great. That’s it. It’s a good, t’s kind of an indirect networking story where you just like happened to run into this person, which is so cool. But again, you kind of grew that relationship over time, which I think is so important. So one thing I like to try to do just in these conversations is break down three different areas. So one’s going to be academic, kind of the community, the community and what it’s like. We’ve touched on that a little bit. And then like you were just touching on your interest in business and just the professional opportunities that you have through your campus. So just kind of touching.

So you mentioned that intro class first year. But what have your studies been like? How is the transition to college academics? Has it been challenging? Was it easier than you thought?

Alan: It was in the beginning, was better than I thought. I think they structured the class as well, in terms of their rigor and having the requirements for each class, such that we’re able to take classes that were good. I think the best part of really, probably my favorite part of attending was it was the small class sizes. And the ability to work with professors, go to office hours, especially when you have like a question and you’re learning or you’re confused or you need extra help. I think that made the journey much easier because when I came into college, I was definitely not too sure how things were going to be. I was very unsure just hearing the word ‘college’ and what that actually meant. Initially, I thought the rigor was probably going to be beyond what I can even fathom. But the transition was made very well by, I’ll say, the professors and the TAs. And the small class sizes.

Interviewer: And what was the structure in Rwanda? Is it that they have like a standard high school structure over 4 years and are the assignments similar or is it set up differently?

Alan: I was fortunate enough to the last year of my high school, my parents allowed me to go to a school that had the investment banking program. So it was the last two years I did IB. Before that, I did the English system that was more purely academic, you’re reading. But the last two years we went towards like project-based assignments. But I’ll say it’s mainly more of just you read, you study for a test, maybe you have two or three exams in a year. That’s one. Some homework. But I was fortunate that the last two years was more like writing papers. I still wasn’t good. I wouldn’t say I was the best at that because at least at that point, writing was not a skill that was very easy to me. I guess that was a skill college helped me sort of have more time to learn and practice through that skill of writing and communicating, etc.

Interviewer: Yeah. And so that structure was better in terms of just expanding your skill set. And like you just said, there was a big learning curve in that.

And did you feel busier with the class schedule in college or was it kind of nice having breaks throughout the day? Was that a good setup for you?

Alan: Definitely. It was very much enjoyable because I think back to high school, it’s very structured. You’re studying from seven to like three p.m. and then other stuff to five and six. It was nice to have some windows in between. The parts that made it a bit busy was also balancing other stuff, I guess in the U.S. if you’re doing college, you also have a job. You are getting involved in like an organization on campus early on and trying to balance it all. It was an interesting learning curve. Yeah. It started off very calm and I think I was enjoying free time too much. Like, oh, I have a three-hour window, I can like relax, I can sit down. Then I had the learning curve and it got busier over time. It was much better of a structure, more flexible, at least more as a person, I’m the one sort of determining my schedule, which I love.

Interviewer: Yeah, for sure. I always tell everyone I fell victim to that window of like three hours, I could take a nap or watch a movie. And very quickly you learn that it’s not possible. But yeah, so I think that’s a good just kind of touching on what you came from, where you came from, what school was like and then how it changed in college. And so many students, I think it’s a similar thing, and they’re trying to figure out just where a certain building is on campus, but then they also have to get to class on time and you have all these different assignments that you’re managing through. Well, I think it was Blackboard for me, I don’t know what you guys use, what do you guys use for courses?

Alan: We use Moodle.

Interviewer: Never heard of it. Is that similar to Blackboard?

Alan: I think, yeah, Moodle, just like the assignment, the due dates, and what not.

Interviewer: Yeah, and you have those moments where you haven’t clicked on a class for like a day or so, you forget and then you think there’s an assignment due, I remember that stress for sure. But I think that kind of touches on just the classes and what you’ve been up to. So I’d love to shift kind of into professional interests, some of the extracurriculars that you were talking about.

But yeah, I’d love to just hear about some of the student clubs and organizations that you’ve been a part of.

Alan: Sure. I’ll probably start with the African Student Union.

Interviewer: Yeah, sure.

Alan: Definitely one thing that surprised me was that just, I think you used to add a lot of international students. There’s just a lot of different people from different countries and the African, probably your own ballpark, a hundred Africans on campus and there’s like 2,000 students. And I just felt like this is very different experience than what I thought I would experience. You always see people from different countries and you get to sort of, as it was, it made the transition to the US much easier because you have people who are there who may come from your country and can guide you on different things to do. And it made sense, there was a semblance of home that was there that made the transition easier. Even if we’re all doing different majors, involved on different parts of campus, but we usually all meet on like a Friday. And we all have like an hour where we’re hanging out and it’s good to sort of have those social interactions every week. I started off just being a regular member. The involvement came on, interestingly, again, through those coincidental opportunities, there was, they were looking for like a treasurer on campus. I had done a little bit of that in high school. So I was like, okay, I’m not too, I don’t know how well I can do this job, but I can try.

Interviewer: Yeah. Awesome. That’s so cool. So, yes, you kind of came to campus with some version of identity and experiences, and you found some of that through this group.

How many people from the hundred Africans on campus are part of this organization? Is it a majority of them?

Alan: I’d probably say the majority, probably like 95% of the hundred Africans are probably on in the organization, involved, very, very, I think it’s something they all unite towards. I would say.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s amazing. Yeah. So you were able to grow your community on a campus in a new place.

And just while we’re talking about it, where are your favorite places to hang out with your friends, either on campus or off campus?

Alan: Oh, interestingly, I’ll probably say that there’s a cafe in the science building. As an econ major, I probably have no business doing anything in the science building. We had two friends who were BCMB, biochemistry molecular biochemistry. And they were always there. So they’d come and they had the best coffee shop. They also had a lot of expertise in picking coffee. So we would often go behind them and sort of take what they ordered and get to see that sort of creative skill. So I was, that’s one place I like a lot. And probably other than that, I would say there’s the dining hall, there’s a lot of different seating places. There’s a lot of places above the dining hall where people can chat and have discussions or near the convenience store. There’s like a little place to sit. I’ll say those areas tend to be the calmest, to easy to locate as well. Cause that’s the other, I feel like with a lot of people on campus, you may say one place, they may not know it, but that’s like, those are the two places where everyone will know. And if you take a common hangout spot, easy to get there three minutes from any dorm five minutes from anywhere else.

Interviewer: Yeah. Oh, that’s nice. Yeah. Really convenient too. We, I definitely took advantage when I went to school because all the humanities buildings, which was my major, were just, they’re beautiful, but they’re older and you don’t have the cafes in them. So, you’d have to walk from your dorm to class and then walk the other direction to go to the coffee shop, like you were saying, and then, but it was a bigger campus. So it’s stressful. And I’d get really sweaty. I’d be like sprinting to the engineering side of campus for their coffee. And yeah, the humanities buildings were just classrooms. So there were, there were no good spots to hang out. So it’s always good to know like where to go and how to access that. And like you were just saying, it sounds like campus was small enough where it was pretty easy.

But what about kind of the social side of things? Is that like our parties and different gatherings and networking events or is that all on campus or is it in the town? It’s the city of Worcester, right? Or the town of Wooster?

Alan: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The town of Wooster. Yeah. Social gatherings, probably more on campus, but spread throughout. There are people who have, I’m sure some, some fraternities or organizations have different houses to themselves. The African Student Union used to have a house and they would throw different like social gatherings at that house. So mostly, and the houses are very close to the dorms. They’re just like a, probably like one-minute walk from the dorm. And yeah, so most everything happens on campus. It’s very, most all, it’s only like later on or once in a while that people may go to, we’re near Cleveland. So, even when we just go explore Cleveland, social gatherings there, if they’ve been on campus for too long. Yeah.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s cool.

How far is Cleveland? Is it like an hour?

Alan: Yeah. An hour, probably an hour.

Interviewer: That’s not too bad. Because that, that’s all kinds of like pro sports and concerts and, and then you’re even close to the water, which is really nice.

Are there different things that you’ve done through, through the college that have kind of gone on those trips or like taking you to different places off campus too?

Alan: For sure. I was a part of that because of the investment club, we got the opportunity to travel to one of the conferences with, in Chicago, I think it was 2023. That was very nice. And I was getting the, I’ll say that’s the main time. And I hope, I think this coming in April, we’ll be going to New York as a club. So I’ll say most of the travel I’ve done has been through the investment club. Any other part on campus, I’ll probably say that’s the main organization that I’ve gotten to travel with or get those sorts of opportunities.

Interviewer: That’s awesome. That’s so cool. Yeah. That’s the first time I’ve heard of that actually. A bunch of other colleges, they have the investment club or they have a version of the investment club. But most of the travel or opportunities for things like that have been through like an outdoor program or something that faculty or staff run. And so it’s cool that people are kind of combining that with getting access to conferences and experiences, and I just think it’s super valuable.

So is the investment club kind of your main interest combined with econ career-wise? What kind of shift to that focus? So I’ll ask about like professional resources at Wooster, but what are you envisioning? As you’re going to graduate soon, where are you looking for work? What are your goals professionally?

Alan: I’ll be going back to the same place I interned in the asset management side of Goldman Sachs. I was fortunate enough to discover the industry. I never knew I’d be working in finance let alone asset management when I came to college I sort of explored I had like five majors in mind when I first came and at least back home the culture is you know what your major is by like age 13 14. In college, I let me give myself like one year to explore and see what’s going on here see if I can find my way around things and I think it was through the club and through I guess the people you also meet. I really liked the connections you make because most people who are in the club have other professional interests they’re doing they have internships they’re applying for and you connect to them and they can share resources and it was through that that I was able to learn about different diversity programs and connect to the firm like Goldman and I would never have expected to be working in a firm like this if you told me when I came to college like four years ago that this would be the reality. And the Bridge Program that’s another thing. It’s the way I got to meet you and that was coincidental as well. I was just scrolling on Handshake and found the program.  

Interviewer: I think I told you that’s like my favorite part of my job. I love meeting with students and that’s what this project was born out of. We just get to talk and I get to listen to student stories and the amount that I learn about people beyond our previous connection is so much fun for me.

Did you have any family or friends with experiences in these industries or areas?

Alan: I’ll say in terms of finance I am the first one who went into finance for a career. It’s a lot of new learning and meeting people like I have learned to do for a while now. I’ll also say the Wooster Alumni network has been so helpful. There was one alumna named Blake Moore from our school, I remember I was learning about networking calls and emails so I just started practicing. Blake gave me an opportunity sophomore year that I think solidified my interest in understanding how the industry operates. And I’ll say that’s been a great, great value from the college and from Wooster has been a great part of the experience and I hope at some point in the future if I’m at a point where I can share knowledge I can give the same knowledge to someone in college exploring careers.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s a testament just to the value that you’ve seen in the conversations you’ve had, you already want to get involved and that’s one of the first things I learned about you is that you want to give back and teach the next generation of students and you’re only an undergraduate yourself. You haven’t even graduated yet so it’s just another special connection for anyone that ends up at Wooster is going to be that much more exposed and have that much more access just through students like you which I think is so great. You’ve had a lot of opportunity through these clubs and through connecting with alumni.

Did I ask where you job offer is located after graduation?

Alan: I’ll be in Salt Lake City in Utah.

Interviewer: Just out of curiosity, in the area you’re from in Rwanda, is it mountainous or is it a lot different in terms of terrain?

Alan: I’d say pretty close, we’re very hilly, we’re as they call it the land of a thousand hills. I was used to that when I went to Salt Lake, knowing how prepare to walk up several hills. And I have a grace period in between my graduation and start date.

Interviewer: So only a couple, only a few weeks, that’s not too bad, yeah. Get some time to relax a bit before going all-in and working. No, I think that’s great. I am, I will always have a million questions for you, but just for the sake of time and kind of wrapping up the interview part,

…my favorite question to ask at the end is just any advice you have for future students and how to make the most of their undergrad experience.

Alan: For sure. I would say I think just echoing the same, the last statement would be to just have an open mind towards everything, towards opportunities, towards different people you meet because you really never know what you may want, especially when I guess you’re younger in age, and you have the opportunity to explore and see what is there and what works for you, and meet a lot of people. Try to step out of your comfort zone, try to go to as many different events on campus, try to greet someone on street just greet someone who may be standing there who you find interesting, you never know how the sort of connection that may form on campus and how that leads to other opportunities afterwards.

Interviewer: Yeah, I think that’s good advice. You’re the epitome of that, where you applied and you showed up and you met people right away. You made the most of it, and then we got connected, which I’m still so thankful for. And now we’ve reconnected, which is so much fun. So one more huge thank you – I really appreciate your time. This is an awesome conversation.

Alan: Oh, thank you so much, thank you so much for inviting me and considering me. This is that’s a great project, and I’m sure a lot of people and students will be learning a lot from these interviews.

Interviewer: And it’s so beneficial to have you.

Alan: Thank you.